Editor’s note: Dr. Tom Snyder contributed to this column. Dr. Ted Baehr is founder and publisher of MOVIEGUIDE?: A Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment and founder and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission. Dr. Tom Snyder is editor of MOVIEGUIDE?.
The movie version of “The Da Vinci Code” book by Dan Brown could have a major impact, including a long-term impact, on the spiritual development or understanding of the American public, a polling firm, the Barna Group, reported Monday.
Among the adults who have read the book, one out of every four (24 percent) said the book was either “extremely,” “very” or “somewhat” helpful in their “personal spiritual growth or understanding.” That’s roughly 11 million out of the 45 million adults in the United States who have read the book.
George Barna, founder of the Barna Group, noted that the movie version could have an even greater impact than the book, because some studies have shown that movies are much more influential than books in terms of the long-term impact on people’s spiritual development.
And, the potential effect of the DVD of “The Da Vinci Code” movie can magnify that impact on millions more people who do not see the movie in the theater and the millions of people, especially young people, who like to watch DVDs over and over again.
Barna also predicted, based on his survey of 1003 adults across the United States, that as many as 500,000 moviegoers in America in the coming weeks will change one or more of their religious beliefs based on the movie’s content. That number could be as many as 2 million people, however, if one takes into account the long-term impact of the movie, including its upcoming DVD release.
The most significant impact of the movie, however, Barna said in a news release, “could well be on the young people who see the movie, since their belief systems are still in the process of development and are more susceptible to new teachings.”
Thus, those who say, “It’s only a movie,” or who protest that Dan Brown’s book is “just a piece of fiction” are deluding themselves about the long-term, negative consequences of Dan Brown’s anti-Christian, anti-Semitic “The Da Vinci Code” propaganda.
Please, don’t read this horrible book or see this ill-conceived movie.
The Barna Group’s findings are totally in line with the media research that MOVIEGUIDE? has uncovered over the years.
The facts presented by the Barna Group are extremely disturbing, especially considering the fact that some Christian leaders and many Christian pastors are urging Christians to read the book or take their families to see the movie!
As Jesus says in Mark 9:42, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.”
In other words, to those Christians and Non-Christians who are shilling for the evil represented by “The Da Vinci Code,” death would be preferable to them than the punishment that God will bring down on their ignorant, foolish heads when they face the Final Judgment!
Their only redemption will be if they throw themselves on the Mercy and Grace of God and change their ways, through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who died for their sins.
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“Breaking the Da Vinci Code” DVD
